Two Individuals Convicted of Health Care Fraud

GULFPORT, MS—United States Attorney Dunn Lampton announced today that two more people have been convicted of defrauding Medicare.

Pamela Hull, of Moss Point, Mississippi was convicted by a jury on January 29, 2009, of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud, three counts of Health Care Fraud and twelve counts of making false stoperator of Rehabilicare, Inc., which was helatements relating to health care. Hull, along with her co-defendant, was indicted on November 20, 2007. Hull was the owner and d out to be a “Physical Medicine” company. In reality, Rehabilicare illegally provided physical therapy type services by sending untrained and unqualified people into the homes of elderly Medicare patients, who believed they were being treated by licensed and trained health care professionals. These untrained employees were paid between $10 and $18 dollars per patient, while Rehabilicare billed Medicare as much as $1,300 per patient visit. As part of the scam, Rehabilicare billed Medicare as if the one hour treatment sessions lasted as long as twelve hours per day, and were performed by a licensed physician. In the one year period Rehabilicare was in operation, they submitted $23,000,000 in false bills to Medicare and received more than $5,000,000 in stolen government funds.

Jacqualine Crawley, of Messer, North Carolina, also stood trial and was convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud, three counts of Health Care Fraud and twelve counts of making false statements relating to health care. Crawley was also an owner of Rehabilicare and served as the manager of the company. The evidence at trial showed that Crawley hired the unqualified and untrained employees who actually provided the illegitimate therapy treatments to their unknowing patients. Crawley would spend two to eight days orienting these employees before they were sent out alone to conduct “therapy” on their patients. Crawley, who is a licensed Occupational Therapy Assistant in Mississippi and North Carolina, had previously worked for another “Physical Medicine” company before opening up Rehabilicare.

At the conclusion of the trial, both Hull and Crawley were remanded to the custody of theUnited States Marshal to await sentencing. Sentencing is set for both defendants of May 8, 2009, at 9 a.m. in front of United States District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Both Hull and Crawley face up to 95 years in prison and 4 million dollars in fines. Bothdefendants are subject to pay restitution and the United States is seeking to forfeit $1.4 million in previously seized funds from Hull.

The case was in investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Scott Gilbert, Jay Golden and David Blank prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.